Paperbacks: HHhH By Laurent Binet

When Paris-based teacher Laurent Binet decided to novelise the plot to assassinate Nazi security chief, Reinhard Heydrich, he set himself the challenge of not making anything up.

An interesting brief for a writer of historical fiction, but one that is chillingly effective. He breathes life into the preparations by two Czechoslovakian parachutists to put an end to the activities of the man whom even Hitler called "the man with the iron heart". Binet's approach may be new, but his story-telling instincts are nicely old fashioned. Translator Sam Wood does justice to the lucid prose.